Top 10 Innovations To Reduce Plastic Waste

June 24, 2019

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Innovations To Reduce Plastic Waste – Must Read Top 10 List

Plastic is one of the many inventions by Human Mankind that has become an essential part of human life, but not much was understood then that it can lead to disastrous consequences affecting the environment & existence of Life. Plastic is a synthetic polymer. The polymerization gives many beneficial features to the plastic for everyday use such as waterproofing, break resistance, partly resistance to temperature sensitivity. Because of this extensive use of plastic can be seen from food packaging material to polythene sheets for house cover. The reason behind this is the cheap production cost, easy availability of raw materials for the production of plastic and durability. Gaze your eye around you right where you are now – plastic – Plastic made products are omnipresent.

Plastic has resistance against almost all type of environmental factors and it remains nondegradable. Excess use and improper disposal have extensively contributed to landfills leading to soil pollution. Not only this another life-threatening impact of plastic waste is its consumption by wandering animals such as cows, buffalos, etc. Apart from land, plastic pollution has also affected the aquatic environment substantially. As per various reports, the plastic accumulation in oceans is the most important reason for the death of aquatic lives and reduction of productivity. The harmful effect of plastic waste has become so worse that now initiatives are taken to make people aware of its consequences.

The 2018 World Earth day was celebrated with the theme to End Plastic Pollution to save the earth. We can say the invention of plastic which was considered to be a boon for mankind has been turned into a curse.

Even though the plastic usage has become so much problematic, it cannot be completely prohibited because of its utility and its essential use in certain cases. Although many scientists across the world are putting in their best effort to develop biopolymers that can be easily degraded, though commercially it has not gained success yet. Moreover, these methods are extremely high on pockets. Apart from this many biologists across the world are constantly exploring through the world of microbes in order to identify potential bacteria or fungi that can be genetically altered to degrade the available plastic matter. No significant success has been achieved in these fields as well.

As an alternative now people are being cautious to reduce the use of plastic by switching to an eco-friendly product such as paper bags etc but as their usage is limited and complete ban of the plastic is simply not possible immediately; the plastic waste management still remains as an unsolved problem across the globe. So when it’s not very much practical to stop the usage, the most effective alternative strategy adopted is to either recycle or minimize the use.

Being concerned with the problems some creative minds have contributed inventions which can be definitely used to reduce the plastic waste accumulation significantly. In this article, we throw light on Top 10 Novel Innovations To Reduce Plastic Waste that could help to minimize the plastic waste in spite of its regular use in day to day life.

1. Building Roads From Waste Plastic Matter

This could be regarded as the best possible solution found to date to utilize and manage the accumulating plastic waste, worldwide. In Tamil Nadu India a prominent chemical scientist Vasudev also known as the Plastic man of India for the first time implemented the idea of building a road built from melted plastic wastes. Surprisingly the idea worked out really well and the substituted roads were durable. In Madurai town in Tamil Nadu, many kilometers of road is built from plastic waste only. Its implementation on a massive scale is though awaited.

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2. Edible water packaging

Water bottles that are very cheaply available wrapped in the plastic case are one of the greatest cause of plastic pollution. Recently scientists have developed a seaweed edible water package that can be consumed as a whole leaving no waste to be disposed of. A French company Ooho is involved in developing the product.

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3. The Ocean Clean-Up System by “Giant-Pac-Man”

The huge amount of plastic accumulation in the ocean has been the most dangerous threat to aquatic plants and animals, cleaning up of ocean is on the priority list of all concerned Government agencies now. A Dutch non-profit organization named the – Ocean Cleanup has developed a very unique device called as the Giant-Pac-Man that is left in the ocean that literally gobbles the plastic wastes allowing the water to flow back to the ocean and successfully cleaning up the water by collecting the suspended plastic wastes. As per recent reports, this device is known to collect 1.8 trillion pieces of plastic debris on its way to the Great Pacific ocean.

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4. Naked cosmetics

Cosmetics are daily products used by almost all the people mostly women across the world that come in very strong plastic packaged material. Some cosmetic companies have designed their products in deliciously smelling bars without any plastic covering. Lush Cosmetics has taken the initiative for such a product and is also very much appreciated by the customers.

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5. Edible cutlery

How it would be like if we eat the dish along with the dish. Amazing Right? Does Sounds interesting! We eat the ice cream along with the biscuit that contains it. Similarly, an Indian company named Bakeys have invented such edible spoons and forks with delicious flavors which can be eaten directly. This will definitely reduce the plastic load generated because of plastic spoons and forks.

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6. A Toothpaste Pill

The toothpaste has been given a small pill shape that can be used once and there is no need to store it in plastic packages. This is definitely a very creative invention to reduce the plastic load.

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7. Air Conditioning Without Energy

A very innovative way of developing air cooler without energy expenditure could be the best possible use of waste plastic bottles. The warmer breeze enters through the large holes of water and exits through the thinner neck. This helps to control the temperature providing a cooling effect without any energy expenditure. Currently, this is extensively used in Bangladesh and should be adopted by other countries as well.

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8. Bee Wax Food Wrapping

This eco-friendly biological product is made up of natural ingredients such as cotton, beeswax, and organic jojoba oil and tree resins. This is one of the best alternatives for sustainable use as it can last up to a long duration of time and is definitely a much healthier option to store the food material against the thin plastic coverings.

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9. Waste Plastic Homes

As plastic is durable strong, resistant to degradation and waterproof one of the possible ways to utilize it for building homes for the needy. It can definitely reduce the waste plastic load being used sustainably to give shelter to homeless people.

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Six Pack Rings

Since the late 1970s, six pack rings were mentioned as an especially dangerous kind of marine litter as marine wildlife were found entangled in the rings, sometimes strangling to death. But since 1989, all six-pack rings round the globe have been manufactured to become 100 percent photo-degradable, so the plastic will start to disintegrate in just a couple of weeks, allowing animals to free themselves out of the brittle and crumbling rings.

These are some Innovations To Reduce Plastic Waste, though the sustainability of these could still be questionable. But for the instance they are definitely playing a part to protect the environment. Proper Recycling is one of the best ways to keep on using the material without increasing its load as a waste.

About the Author

Manisha is a dynamic professor at Biotecnika and an avid follower of latest life science journals. With a profound background in research, the above article is penned by her based on the topic -Innovations To Reduce Plastic Waste – Must Read Top 10 List.

Perfection is her hobby, Reliability is a synonym, Editing is her passion, Excellence is her Goal, Tactfulness is in her genes, Yellow is her Fav color. Preety is the name of the Professional on whom entire BioTecNika relies when it comes to its website.A Gold Medalist in Biotech from SRM University, Chennai with a 9.9 CGPA ( was awarded the Gold Medal by Honorable Prime Minister of India Shri Narendra Modi , as seen in the pic ), She decided to join forces with BioTecNika to ensure India's largest BioSciences Portal expands its reach to every city in India.She has redesigned the new avatar of BioTecNika from scratch and heads the most dynamic, vibrant and well informed Online Team at Biotecnika Info Labs Pvt Ltd